Collection: Bartolomé Estéban Murillo

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (baptised 1 January 1618 – 3 April 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter active in Seville. He studied under Juan del Castillo and, in 1660, co-founded the Academia de Bellas Artes in Seville. His works were commissioned mainly by ecclesiastical patrons, and he did not work for the royal court.

Murillo’s paintings feature luminous sfumato and a tender, almost rococo-inflected sensibility, evident in devotional works such as "The Immaculate Conception" and "The Holy Family". He also painted genre scenes, including street urchins, flower girls, and beggars, documenting the marginalised strata of 17th-century Andalusian society. Two self-portraits survive, one in the Frick Collection, the other in London’s National Gallery, showing his transition from youthful energy to later gravitas.

Murillo’s influence declined in the 18th century, but his genre scenes anticipated the social realism of later European painting. His devotional works were widely copied through reproductive engravings, securing his place as the most internationally recognised Spanish painter of the Baroque era.